Month: January 2012

Summer Jobs – Opportunities Abound to Work Poolside in Las Vegas!

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Ever dream of working in a position where you can enjoy the summer sunshine, listen to music from excellent DJs, and net great tips at one of the area’s most popular venues? It’s that time of year again, and the hottest spots around town are hiring for a variety of summer positions at their pools and bars. Whether you’re looking for work as a cocktail server, bartender, host, or a variety of other hospitality-based positions, these brisk winter months are the best time to prepare for auditions and interviews. Las Vegas Weekly released an informative article, “Tips for Landing a Job on a Las Vegas Pool Deck,” with great advice for landing a summer job poolside, as well as a detailed list of who’s hiring, and what you’ll need to do to apply.

Las Vegas Weekly offers great advice on how to prepare, but remember, you’ll also need to obtain your TAM® Card prior to serving drinks, poolside or otherwise. Visit our website to register for one of our online or on-site alcohol awareness classes today. For even more advice on responsible poolside beverage service, check out our blog post, “Are You Serving Poolside? Five Ideas for Popular Vegas Pool Parties!”

What advice would you give others about serving poolside?

Resources

© 2012 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

 

Are You Serving Alcohol Lawfully? TAM® Cards Expire After 4 Years

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Over 200,000 hospitality and service workers are employed in Clark County, most of whom are required, by state law, to receive alcohol awareness training and carry an Alcohol Education Card. Alcohol awareness training is mandatory for those who serve or sell alcoholic beverages or provide security services in casinos, restaurants, bars, clubs, and grocery/convenience stores in Clark and Washoe Counties. Many establishments also require anyone who handles alcoholic beverages and their managers and executive staff to carry cards. Do you already have your alcohol card? Great, but make sure to check the expiration date! TAM® Cards expire after four years, so don’t delay in staying current with your education.

There is a common misconception that one can “renew” their card by paying a fee or taking a short quiz, but law dictates one must re-take an approved alcohol awareness course every four years. Laws, policies and procedures, and even available alcohol products can go through considerable changes in four years, and it is very important for service professionals to be aware of those changes. The benefits of refreshing your education include staying up to date on current laws, refreshing knowledge about how alcohol affects the body and learning about what to watch out for, how to react to certain situations, and more.

There are some important points to consider as you determine how this information affects you:

  • Providers of alcohol awareness training, such as TAM® of Nevada, must be approved through Nevada’s Commission on Postsecondary Education. Cards issued by providers and provider locations not on the approved provider list could be deemed invalid.
  • Training can be taken online or in the classroom. If you’re interested in completing your training online, you can view our online course demo and sign up for a class here.
  • All students must physically go to the provider’s approved school location to take an exam that is proctored and pass the proctored exam with a score of at least 75%. TAM® of Nevada has convenient proctoring hours six days a week for students to drop-in to take their exam and obtain a TAM® Card.

If you are concerned that your current card may be invalid, or if you’d like to register for an alcohol awareness course, you can reach TAM® of Nevada here. For more information on laws governing alcohol awareness training in Nevada, check out our blog post, “Call It What You May… There’s Only One TAM Card!”

Resources

© 2012 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

Service Excellence: Making your Serving Staff Stand Out

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Bartenders and servers have a tough job. They must juggle customer satisfaction and safety with fast-paced service, heavy lifting, and hot kitchens… and do it all with smiles on their faces. Given the rigors of the job, a great hospitality worker can be a rare and welcome find, and it is very important that you have a proper training program in place for serve staff. Managers can benefit from a few suggestions aimed at helping to train serving staff to offer the best in hospitality and customer service to increase sales and encourage repeat business. Here are some ideas for making the most of your training program:

  1. Make the most of your search and hiring process to find candidates who are likely to succeed and fit in with your company culture. The first step to training your employees should begin with careful hiring. Make the most of your search by using traditional avenues for listing available positions such as your company website and websites such as LasVegasJobs.com. Additionally, also make use of your social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to advertise job listings and reach a wider audience. Once you’re ready to start interviewing, look for candidates who are interested in learning more about your company, are passionate about customer service, and who are ready to work in Las Vegas. Remember, TAM® Cards are required for employees in positions where they will sell or serve alcoholic beverages, so if new hires are not already certified, make sure they complete their TAM® Training and obtain their Health Card prior to the start of work.
  2. Create an orientation and training program that encompasses all of the important points a server or hospitality professional should be aware of. When outlining your orientation program make sure you touch on points such as safety, safe beverage service, and hand washing procedures, the process for greeting and serving guests, suggestive selling and upselling, and all important company policies and procedures. An orientation should let your staff know what you expect from them, and what they can expect in their new jobs. The goal for a successful orientation is for your new employees to leave well informed and excited about the new opportunity, and for you as a hiring manager to feel like you’ve conveyed the importance of all policies and procedures and set realistic goals and expectations.
  3. Consider enlisting your seasoned staff members to help show new hires the ropes. By allowing new hires to shadow your current employees while they get acclimated to their new positions, they get important on the job training from their peers on menu listings, point of sale systems, and everyday procedures. Your new hires will have someone to turn to on a busy night if they have questions, and your customers can still expect excellent service. Additionally, this is a great way to promote teamwork among your staff members.
  4. Stress that excellence and education is an ongoing process. Even seasoned hospitality professionals are constantly learning and improving. Remember, alcohol awareness cards expire every four years, and this is a good example of one way service professionals can brush up on their skills and knowledge by refreshing their training. You can also consider occasional team building or training workshops to cover topics of interest, or pass along any interesting articles or knowledge to your staff when appropriate. Subscribe to the TAM® of Nevada blog and other industry websites for articles and news items important to customer service professionals.

What ways would you recommend for training new hires? What is the best advice you received when training for a new serving job?

© 2012 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

2012 Consumer Electronics Show Comes to Town

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Take the Opportunity to Promote Las Vegas as a Safe Vacation Spot and Make the Most of 150,000 Visitors

The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) is one of the biggest draws of the year in Las Vegas. Why not make the most of being on center stage to show visitors from all over the world all that Vegas has to offer? Taxi companies are planning to get more drivers on the streets, hotel room prices have skyrocketed for the week, and establishments all over town are preparing to face huge crowds of patrons looking for food, drink, quality service, and a good time.

If you’re planning to work during the course of the event, it presents a great opportunity to make a king’s ransom in tip money, and wow your guests at the same time. Are you looking for ways to get bigger tips? One thing that can set you apart from other cocktail servers and bartenders is sharing some of the Vegas inside scoop with your guests. Your guests may be in town for a business function, but you can help make their visit memorable with prompt service, extra attention and a few simple suggestions. Your guests will certainly appreciate your ability to make recommendations on parties, places to go to after dinner, or any packages or special events for conference attendees.

  1. Promote Las Vegas as a safe vacation spot. Helping to steer visitors towards sights and attractions that are fun, appealing and safe is a great way to share all that the city has to offer. With safety first in mind, encourage visitors not to walk alone at night and to stay on the strip. The Nevada Commission on Tourism’s website also has a wealth of helpful information and resources for popular attractions. Hopefully, visitors will return home to tell their friends what a great time they had! By sharing what the great state of Nevada has to offer, you can not only impress your guests and help them to enjoy a memorable experience, but hopefully they’ll spread the word, and that benefits everyone in the long run.
  2. Make suggestions to your guests for visiting popular spots around town. As a local, you can capitalize on your knowledge of what is going on in and around town. You may want to suggest use of the Las Vegas monorail, trolleys, free trams, and free shuttles. Visitors will expect crowds and having a variety of options to get around will be helpful. And, why not promote the free shows and attractions around town? Suggest checking out the fountain shows, the Fremont Street experience, the Volcano at the Mirage, the Show in the Sky at the Rio, and any other free or low cost attractions that might be worth a visit. Many guests will also appreciate your insider knowledge about where locals like the hang out, off the beaten path sites to visit, etc.
  3. Always practice safe alcohol sales and service. The lessons you learn in your TAM® course will help you to serve responsibly. A well-educated server is familiar with alcohol’s effects on the body and can recognize the dangerous signs of over-intoxication. Watch how much you are serving and how often. You can help to cut down on the number of over-intoxicated individuals who ruin the atmosphere for others, or potentially harm themselves. Also, call a cab for any inebriated drivers on your premises. Keeping them off the road helps keep us all safe.

How are you planning to make the most of the CES crowds?

Resources

© 2012 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada